Martinus College

Grootebroek is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is located in the municipality of Stede Broec. Grootebroek was a separate municipality until 1979. The town is called Grootebroek after a large swamp in the area; in Dutch, "groote" means "large" and "broek" means "swamp". The most common meaning of "broek" in present-day Dutch is "pants", leading to some hilarity about the town's name. Grootebroek is located next to Lutjebroek, "small swamp". The Dutch football players Frank and Ronald de Boer grew up in Grootebroek.

Lutjebroek is a village in the Netherlands. It is part of the municipality of Stede Broec. Lutjebroek has a population of just over 2000 people. In colloquial Dutch, Lutjebroek has become synonymous with "any insignificant speck on the map". This is probably due to the comical sound of the name: the Dutch word luttel is akin to the English word "little" and broek is Dutch for "pants". However, broek as used in Lutjebroek and other Dutch geographical names means swamp. Lutjebroek takes its name from the small swamp that existed nearby when the place was settled. The village is close to Grootebroek (Groote is Dutch for large).

Stede Broec (Dutch: [ˌsteːdə ˈbruk] ; West Frisian Dutch: Stee Broek) is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and the region of West-Frisia. The name Stede Broec derives from stede (meaning city) and broec (meaning swamp).

Bovenkarspel-Grootebroek is a railway station for Grootebroek, Stede Broec and Bovenkarspel, Netherlands. The station opened on 6 June 1885 and is located between Hoorn and Enkhuizen. The station is on the Zaandam–Enkhuizen railway. The station and services are operated Nederlandse Spoorwegen. The current station building dates from 1965.

Oosterwijzend is a hamlet in the municipality of Drechterland, in the Dutch province of North-Holland. Oosterwijzend lays just to the east of where the canal the Wijzend used to bend southwards from Binnenwijzend. To the west of the former Wijzend is Westerwijzend. Nowadays, Oosterwijzend and Westerwijzend are being separated by a paved road beginning in Hoogkarspel. Oosterwijzend is the smaller hamlet of the two, and is formally considered a part of Hoogkarspel. The occupation of the southern part of the hamlet is mostly agricultural. The northern part is untilled, and borders the Zaandam-Enkhuizen railway. Oosterwijzend has a small industry area, called Zuiderwijzend.

Venhuizen (Dutch: [vɛnˈɦœyzə(n)] ; West Frisian: Fenhúze) is a town in the north-western Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and the region of West-Frisia, in the municipality of Drechterland. Venhuizen was a separate municipality until 1 January 2006, when it was merged with the existing municipality of Drechterland. It was decided to call the new municipality Drechterland. On a map of the Hollands Noorderkwartier from 1288 is Venhuizen mentioned as Veenhusen. The name could be referring to houses at or in the fen. The Dutch Reformed church dates from the 15th century. The other large church is the Roman Catholic St. Lucaskerk (St. Lucas church), built in 1956. It's also locally called the tough (robust) church (nl: stoere).

Bovenkarspel is a town in the municipality of Stede Broec in the Dutch province of North Holland. Until 1979, it was a separate municipality.

Hoogkarspel is a railway station in Hoogkarspel, Netherlands. The station opened on 6 June 1885 and is located between Hoorn and Enkhuizen. The station is on the Zaandam–Enkhuizen railway. The station and services are operated Nederlandse Spoorwegen. The current station building dates from 1965.

The Bovenkarspel legionellosis outbreak (Dutch: Legionellaramp; Legionella disaster) began on 25 February 1999 in Bovenkarspel, the Netherlands, and was one of the largest outbreaks of legionellosis in history. With at least 32 dead and 206 severe infections, it was the deadliest legionellosis outbreak since the original 1976 outbreak in Philadelphia, United States. Between 19 and 28 February 1999, the Westfriese Flora took place in Bovenkarspel, one of the largest indoor flower exhibitions in the world (later the Holland Flowers Festival). A vendor had several recreational hot tubs on display, with one of them filled from a long-inactive firehose and heated to 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit). In the water that had previously stagnated inside the hose, a very aggressive type of legionella pneumophila bacterium had developed. The vendor did not add chlorine to the tubs, since customers were not permitted in them.From 7 March, 13 patients were admitted to the Westfries Gasthuis in Hoorn. Unable to diagnose the patients, hospital staff called the Academic Medical Center (AMC) in Amsterdam. The AMC initially diagnosed six patients with legionellosis and a link with the Westfriese Flora was soon made. On 12 March, the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) issued an epidemic warning to all doctors and hospitals, alerting them to Flora visitors and people with pneumonia-like symptoms. In the following weeks, 318 cases throughout the Netherlands were reported to the RIVM. All patients had visited the Westfriese Flora after 22 February and had become ill between 25 February and 16 March. It is known that 32 people died of the infection, one of them in 2001 after prolonged illness. A further 206 people became severely ill and many developed permanent health problems after visiting the Flora.The 318 cases exceeds the 221 in the 1976 Philadelphia outbreak. While the Philadelphia outbreak had two more fatalities (34 versus 32), there is a possibility that others died in the 1999 Bovenkarspel outbreak, but were interred before the infection was recognized.

Bovenkarspel Flora is a railway station on the outskirts of Bovenkarspel, Netherlands. The station opened in 1977 and is located between Hoorn and Enkhuizen. The station is on the Zaandam–Enkhuizen railway. The station and services are operated by the Nederlandse Spoorwegen. The station was originally opened to serve visitors to the annual "Westfriese Flora" flower fair held there, which is why Flora is included in the name. In 1999 an outbreak of legionellosis occurred during the flower fair which caused at least 32 deaths. The fair was renamed the "Holland Flower Festival" in 2003 and was relocated to Zwaagdijk-Oost in 2005.

Drechterland (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈdrɛxtərlɑnt] ) is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and the region of West-Frisia. The municipality was formed in 1979, in a merger of the former municipalities of Hoogkarspel, Westwoud and Oosterblokker. Its original name, Bangert, was changed to "Drechterland" in 1980. In 2006, the former municipality of Venhuizen was added to Drechterland.

Westerwijzend is a hamlet in the municipality of Drechterland, in the Dutch province of North-Holland. Westerwijzend lays just to the west of where the Wijzend canal used to bend southwards from Binnenwijzend. To the east of the former Wijzend is Oosterwijzend. Nowadays, Oosterwijzend and Westerwijzend are being separated by a paved road beginning in Hoogkarspel. Westerwijzend is the bigger hamlet of the two, and is formally considered a part of Hoogkarspel. The occupation of the southern part of the hamlet is mostly agricultural. The northern part is untilled, and borders the Zaandam-Enkhuizen railway.